Pete B. wrote:fwiw, Last night I had to tell a drummer to Shut The Fuck Up And Just Play at leat 5 times.
I feel yer pain.

If you want the drummer to shut up, put a microphone in front of him... You'll never hear another peep outta him.

I found out the hard way that can be dangerous. The drummer in my last band decided he wanted to sing. Not only did it mess up his time whenever he opened his mouth, which drove me nuts, but his singing was really bad. He couldn't tell. We'd play something during rehearsal and I'd say "this one doesn't need backup vocals" or "don't sing in that part" but he would not be deterred. I couldn't stand it and stopped playing with him.

LOL! I've played with people who constantly joke or babble into their mics at rehearsal while others are trying to either convey a musical message, work out a problem or figure out what needs to be worked on in an upcoming number. In those times I've just dropped their fader to 0! Of course that gets me a dirty look to which I reply, "we are figuring out band stuff"

deadguise wrote:A quiet bassplayer???
Does he have an introvert personality (timid)? Maybe he needs a boost in self confidence.
I have a guitarist in one of my bands who wears ear plugs, his tone sucks because of it and it tunes him out from the rest of the band. He wears them because "he stood in front of Bobby for too many years".
Your band doesn't sound "loud" from the recordings (nice playing btw...) maybe sneak in a slave amp and tap into one of his outs...?

...Well there is that famous story of Jerry pushing Phil down a flight of stairs...

It probably doesn't need to come to that but man dealing with strong held personal opinions can be super tricky. I have always thought that as good as you guys sound live the bottom end could have used a little buttressing,I think I might have even mentioned something to you at set break at the last show I caught; glad to hear you and the band taking action. My suggestion would be to offer suggestions to your Bass guy ie ditching the in-ears in favor of high end db blocking earplugs and topping that off with a set of ANR headset, I wear a Bose one at work and it does awesome. Secondly re the house mix is his Bass turned up all the way? like was said above the signal out of the alembic tapped into the board mix should give the sound guy lots to work with, but what do I know. Sorry I missed the Oct. shows stuck at work...ughhh, see you later this month though!

It sounds to me like you have two problems... he's not getting up anywhere near the register that Phil typically plays in, or being nearly melodic enough. Wait, I'm about halfway through the clip and he's finally gone up an octave but he's still mostly just pounding two notes... not enough. He should be weaving a line under the rest of the band the whole time. Maybe you need to tell him to never play the same note twice in a row. It's a little too extreme as a long-term concept but it might help him get out of his rut. Hey, I like how you're doing the full early 70's Eyes arrangement... very cool!

But the signal thing... that doesn't even make any sense. "not getting enough signal" - WTF does that mean? That why boards have gain knobs, and if that's not enough, switchable mic/line inputs. If he's getting enough signal to his ear monitors, he's putting out enough signal to be amplified over the PA. If all else fails, take a passive DI and insert it between his bass and amp.